Guest post by Justin McGill of SEORCHERS.COM
If traffic to your website has been slow or if you’ve been getting traffic, but seeing few results, then you may be in the market for a site redesign.
Your conversion rates will tell you whether your site design is effective or not. So if you see conversions diminishing, it’s time to check for some common pitfalls that could be draining traffic away from your site and costing you sales...
Unclear Purpose
As soon as a visitor lands on your site, he should know exactly what your primary goal or service is. If your website is overly complex, the reader will need to search for the purpose and will often click away from the page before taking the time to find it.
Remember, you have less than one second to capture the viewer’s attention and persuade him that your site can meet his need, so make the most of that initial contact. Also, make sure that the most important information can be seen without scrolling down the page.
Information Overload
Too much text can be a turnoff for the average web user. Tiny text and lots of links can look overwhelming to a reader who is looking for a specific piece of information.
Break text up with clear headings, bolding, and visual space. Most web readers scan quickly through pages rather than reading every word, so choose font sizes and organization that makes your message easily discernible at a glance.
Failure to Provide a Call to Action
Your site may have excellent design and offer great information, but if you don’t ask the viewer to take an action, then he’ll probably forget about your company as soon as he leaves your web page.
Your call to action link should be large and easily seen as soon as a viewer lands on your home page. Whether you want the reader to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, provide an email address, fill out a form, or schedule an appointment, he should be able to do so immediately without having to scroll down the page or scan through a row of links.
Frustration Buttons
Frustration buttons are the ones that serve no useful purpose and that, when clicked, can cause a user to leave your site in annoyance. An “Empty Your Cart” button that can easily be clicked accidentally, erasing a customer’s entire order, a “Clear Form” button that deletes all the information a user has entered, or a link that takes a reader somewhere other than where it says it will all qualify as frustration buttons.
You can find buttons on your site that may cause frustration in your viewers by taking the time to navigate though your site and click every link as though you had never seen it before.
Taking the time to correct website conversion pitfalls on your website can significantly increase your conversions and maximize your online effectiveness.
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Justin is the founder and CEO of Small Business SEO - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. For more, see Justin's Web Marketing Blog.
About Lynn Terry
Great post. A lot of times the obvious is overlooked by all of us. We all need to put ourselves in "the viewer's shoes".
Another tip is to have a short, memorable domain name. "SEOrchers"?? what does that even mean? Crazy! Spend the money if you have to. It's worth it in the long term.
SEORCHERS, pronounced surch-ers. It's a company name, replacing A with O for SEO purposes and relativity. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
All these points are very important to every visitor. Always remember that visitors need to be find the site interesting so you can convince them to take an action. These actions will eventually give you better results.
I think taking the time to make some simple changes in order to increase conversion is time well spent. I think at its most basic level, all you need to do is focus on establishing some sort of "wow" factor within the first 10 seconds a prospect lands on your website, all without them having to scroll down.
- Daniel
Thanks Justin. Some great tips, particularly about the importance of having a clear call to action. I just wanted to add, however, that even when all of these things are addressed, there are still a great number of visitors who will leave without making a final purchase decision. Retargeting can combat this and bring back the ones who got away, so to speak. (Some great tips on how to use this technique as part of your marketing plan: http://bit.ly/dx1vod.) Bottom line is, I think it's important to look at the whole picture when developing a good marketing plan, so you can effectively get those conversions, and keep them coming back. Thanks for a great post!
I guess information overload can also relate to too many topics in your blog. You actually have to make sure that you have a topic and then stick to it.
Great info! I feel that having a strong call to action towards the end of articles/posts is a really good idea especially in my blog's subject matter. Thanks for the great ideas!
To Your Success,
Steven Goodwin
Once more one more extremely good post, as I've come to anticipate from such a sensible site. Thanks a ton
Thanks Justin and I feel that you are right on all accounts. I have been doing some of these changes on my website and my bounce rate changes as I make changes.
Thanks, Justin. Those are all sticking points for sure. Marketers should look at their sites from the potential customer's view.
Recently a fellow marketer was testing out my upcoming new membership site and he did a screenshot video of the process he went through, payment through to the proper membership pages. This was great because as he walked through it, we were able to see that he had a little trouble in one spot as to what he should do next. So we went back and made sure the next step was clearer with a little additional instruction and a more prominent link.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our side of things we can't see it the way the customer can.
Thanks,
Peggy
Hi Justin,
Interesting post, definitely got me thinking. I have tried so many different methods to increase my conversion rates that its actually funny. I totally agree with your tip to keep things uncluttered or the visitor will just get confused. I have found that dealing with this issue has had a positive effect on some of my campaigns that were failing miserably.
Thanks,
Mark Lindsay
Keep it simple, right Mark? Glad to hear the successes you've had after some website tweaks!
Good point about those "Frustration Buttons" - I seem very good at finding those when I lease want to!
About the unclear purpose issue: What do I do when I have a blog? If the user lands on the main page he will have to search himself. Is there a better solution to this...
I feel like one of my big blogs is wasting tons of traffic. The site gets huge amounts of traffic but sales stay the same.
I have an exclusive, new free report you can download on increasing your conversion rates here: http://www.clicknewz.com/free/32ConversionTriggers.pdf
Enjoy! 😀
That is a really great list of triggers Lynn. Thank you for sharing that link. I will reference it often.